yeah but we don't actually know if he did anything to Krypton yet. He doesn't like Kryptonians and wanted to wipe them out and even the big powers of the universe who told him no are unsure of whether he did or not, because he's apparently not a "BLARGH! I AM EVIL! HEAR MY EVIL LAUGH!" type.

Seems to be a well respected and feared warrior. I mean the next time we see him, he's coming into his favorite watering hole and seems to be on friendly terms with the owner. No "OH NO! HE'S COMING!" and more like "Oh hey dude, been a while. Your regular?"

So I'll see where it's going first. Now we can guess there will be some fuck ups here and there, but I'm really hoping this run turns out to be more Daredevil and less New Avengers

His costume/character designs over the years. He’s great at pre-established looks, pretty crappy/generic on original stuff imo.

I don't know enough about his designs over the years so I'll defer to you on this one.

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I mean come on man, a skull belt buckle? Really?

That is a bit cliche' but the weapon was pretty cool (maybe a touch of Terrax in there).

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As for the character itself, which is Bendis, yet -another- villain w. ties to Krypton. Meh.

Bendis creates very few characters (for Marvel at least) but I don't see the big fuss with Rogol Zaar having ties to Krypton - if anything it just gives a a quick explanation of why he wants to fight Superman.

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Another hulking brute w. ties to Krypton to boot.

I can only think of one other myself so its not a big turn off for me. I want to find out more about those characters Rogol Zaar was talking to though.

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Not very original.

You could sort of say that about 99.9% of characters/villains created in comics today. Most are derivative of something else.

Overall for me the villain LOOKS cool. His name is poor. Whether he'll be a good/great villain only time will tell.

But then how many great new villains has Superman faced since Doomsday?

You could sort of say that about 99.9% of characters/villains created in comics today.

I’m not talking about 99.9% of characters/villains though, just Superman’s. And, there are many original characters and concepts coming out, outside Marvel & DC, where creators have more freedom, but that's another topic.

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But then how many great new villains has Superman faced since Doomsday?

TBF, DD wasnt great, he was a one dimensional monster that served a purpose, but i see your point.

And to that point, i have to say, characters like this Rogol Zaar arent great, just more of the same.We all know Superman’s going to win pretty much any physical fight he gets into, so, why invent character after character that are just an excuse for him to brawl?Supes has other qualities that have just been woefully ignored for going on a decade now, ever since the New 52 stripped him of all the things that made him superMAN.

But thats just me, no sarcasm intended, hope you enjoy the new villain and stories. I was hoping for something different, which i know Bendis is capable of, or used to be.

You could sort of say that about 99.9% of characters/villains created in comics today.

I’m not talking about 99.9% of characters/villains though, just Superman’s.

I'm an occasional Superman fan (I pick up trades here and there) and I don't recall any great new villains in the past 25 years. I really liked Atlas but that was an old character updated.

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And, there are many original characters and concepts coming out, outside Marvel & DC, where creators have more freedom, but that's another topic.

Writers and artists outside the Big 2 have to try harder with character designs.

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But then how many great new villains has Superman faced since Doomsday?

TBF, DD wasnt great, he was a one dimensional monster that served a purpose, but i see your point.

Doomsday has a great visual design though - I mean he's basically just a monster but he's a damn cool one.

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And to that point, i have to say, characters like this Rogol Zaar arent great, just more of the same.We all know Superman’s going to win pretty much any physical fight he gets into,

Maybe he'll defeat Superman? That's how it looked from the previews.

Part of the big problem as regards Superman (for me) is the fact that he's as powerful as he needs to be approach rather than well he's 'this powerful'.

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so, why invent character after character that are just an excuse for him to brawl?

Well its very simple, Superman is an action (super)hero. If you take the action out of the story then it loses the majority of its appeal.

Superman needs to be challenged, otherwise the stories become boring. Now that challenge might not always be physical, BUT from a visual standpoint (in a comic or movie) it nearly always needs to have an action component.

That said, while you can't necessarily kill off the main character (I guess you can get away with that once) you then need to find other ways to hurt him; such as via his friends and family; or weakening him; or imprisoning him etc.

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Supes has other qualities that have just been woefully ignored for going on a decade now, ever since the New 52 stripped him of all the things that made him superMAN.

Curious what you think they took away from him? I wasn't following every issue back then.

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But thats just me, no sarcasm intended, hope you enjoy the new villain and stories. I was hoping for something different, which i know Bendis is capable of, or used to be.

So far its been average but I like the potential of Rogol Zaar and maybe Bendis will surprise us somewhere along the line.

So why did they start trending Luthor back to a villain? Over the last few years I felt Jurgens had done a great job of developing him away, and now it seems it's been switched back. He hasn't gone full villain like before, but whatever little trust the two had built seems to be gone. And Superman just writing Lex off as evil and not capable of change in the Superman Special seems very un Superman of him.

So why did they start trending Luthor back to a villain? Over the last few years I felt Jurgens had done a great job of developing him away, and now it seems it's been switched back. He hasn't gone full villain like before, but whatever little trust the two had built seems to be gone. And Superman just writing Lex off as evil and not capable of change in the Superman Special seems very un Superman of him.

He'll be back to pure villain in no time. Happened to Zemo, too, and that was under a more talented writer than Bendis.

Writers and artists outside the Big 2 have to try harder with character designs.

Doesnt mean the ones -at- the Big 2 shouldnt.

True but if you already have numerous great villains that fill pretty much every niche, its easy for writers at the big 2 to simply fall back onto older more established great characters.

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If you think action is only defined by brawling, and thats all Supes has to offer, i guess we havent got anything left to discuss.

No one said action is only brawling. In fact I'd say among the more powerful heroes (Hulk, Thor, Wonder Woman etc.) Superman is the least reliant on getting into fights because he's not necessarily a warrior (or a 'beast' as in Hulk's case) per se.

But that said there are only so many times (or so often) you can save x, y and z before it gets a bit stale. Whereas a brawl can stay fresh if you mix up the villains (and their power sets) enough.